According to reports from the usual suspects, joining last week’s early pickup Modern Family at ABC are the new Courteney Cox (Friends) comedy Cougar Town, the new Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) sitcom Hank, and the new Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Neil Flynn (Scrubs) comedy The Middle. Put a bit differently, ABC is stocking up on sitcoms starring proven comedy veterans from other proven comedies past and present. Smart move, if you ask me.

Cougar Town follows the adventures of a Florida-based single mother (Cox) of a teen son determined to maintain a successful career and a romantic life filled with hot young things at the same time. Dan Byrd, Ian Gomez, Josh Hopkins, Christa Miller, Busy Philipps, and Brian Van Holt co-star.

Hank revolves around a former Wall Street bigwig (Grammer) who returns to his small family hometown after he loses his top-dog job and all that goes with it. Macey Cruthird, David Koechner, Melinda McGraw, and Ryan Wynott co-star.

The Middle tells the story of a middle-class, married mother of three (Heaton) who lives in Middle America with her middle-of-the-road family as she steadily approaches middle age. Well, the title certainly fits. Charlie McDermott, Atticus Shaffer, and Eden Sher co-star.

An official ABC announcement about the newcomers is expected on Tuesday, May 19, during the network’s upfront presentation.

Reports this past week indicate two new sitcoms will have a home on Fox during the 2009–2010 season and, wouldn’t you know, both sound infinitely better than ‘Til Death.

News of a pickup for the single-camera comedy Sons of Tucson broke first, on Tuesday, May 12, although the network won’t officially announce its newcomers until the broadcast networks’ upfront presentations next week.

Sons focuses on three brothers (Davis Cleveland, Frank Dolce, and Troy Gentile) who hire a hustler, played by Reaper’s Tyler Labine, to pose as their wealthy father while the real deal is in prison for a white-collar boo boo.

Word of a second comedy pickup for the multi-camera sitcom Brothers came Friday, May 15. The series scored a 13-episode order to tell viewers about a retired NFL football star who returns to his Houston hometown in order to become close to his family, including his brother confined to a wheelchair.

Fox NFL Sunday commentator and real-life former NFL player Michael Strahan plays the first brother, while always entertaining Daryl “Chill” Mitchell (Ed, Veronica’s Closet, The John Larroquette Show), who’s pictured above and wheelchair-bound in real life following a 2001 car accident, plays the second sibling. Carl Weathers (In the Heat of the Night, Street Justice), CCH Pounder (The Shield, ER), and Colton Dunn (MADtv) round out the fine cast.

Sorry, Kristin Chenoweth fans, but I bear very bad news. Variety reports that NBC has declined to pick up the Pushing Daisies dynamo’s David E. Kelley pilot called Legally Mad.

Rumors had been flying that was the case since the network failed to mention the potential show during its “infront” announcement last Monday. The event was scheduled to tell the world about the slate of new series NBC intends to give a chance during the 2009–2010 season.

In addition to Chenoweth, the cast of the would-have-been drama included Eli Stone alumna Loretta Devine, as well as Charity Wakefield, Hugh Bonneville, Jon Seda, and Kurt Fuller. What I would have given to see Kristin and Loretta on the same show each week.

It looks like Married… with Children’s Al Bundy — or at least Ed O’Neill, the actor who played him — is heading back to broadcast TV.

Reports indicate the ABC has picked up its first series of the 2009–2010 season unusually early, and it’s Twentieth Century Fox TV’s Modern Family. Formerly called My American Family, the ensemble project is from writers and producers Steve Levitan (Back to You, Just Shoot Me!, Wings) and Chris Lloyd (Back to You, Frasier, The Golden Girls).

According to Variety, the show “scored a great response” during pilot screenings, “giving the net reason to go ahead now and pick up 13 episodes for fall.” Moreover, despite ABC’s continuing determination to air some dreadfully unfunny supposed sitcoms — I’m primarily talking about you, Surviving Suburbia! — the network “hopes the early series order sends a message as it heads into the upfronts that the net is making comedy a priority.”

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Fourth-place broadcast network NBC really demonstrated its determination to remain in that lowly position during The Peacock’s “Infront” presentation earlier today. Apparently, it cares not a lick about genuinely original yet thoroughly entertaining programs, as the confirmed cancellation of the stellar Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi cop dramedy Life proves.

Also confirmed as canceled are the God-awful remakes Kath & Kim and Knight Rider. It actually pains me to see a terrific series like Life lumped together with two shows that never should have made it past go in the first place. Given the upcoming primetime Leno fiasco, NBC is now officially a network that I won’t be taking seriously again anytime soon, Chuck renewal or not.

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Well, there’s no doubt how much TBS loves Tyler Perry, the man responsible for one, going on two now, of the network’s most popular original series.

Yesterday, the basic-cable network announced that it has ordered an additional 80 — yes, eighty — episodes of Perry’s second sitcom, Meet the Browns, based on premiere ratings that are only surpassed by those that Perry’s first sitcom, House of Payne, earned when it debuted in June 2007. I must say I’m happy about this news because Meet the Browns has proven to be a funny and engaging comedy so far.

Variety reports that Meet the Browns, now nearing the end of a ten-episode trial run, will return in the summer to team up with House of Payne. Obviously, this is a match made in heaven, so Perry fans have a whole lot to look forward to on TBS in a few months.

In case you missed the news, rookie sitcoms Kath & Kim on NBC and Gary Unmarried on CBS have both received full-season orders of 22 and 20 episodes, respectively, from their home networks.

Considering the fact that neither show is posting impressive ratings, the pickups seem to demonstrate a new reality in the current climate of sluggish viewership: nurture the shows with potential to perform better in the future, or at least hang on to those shows you already have in the stable to keep your schedule free of holes.

Less-than-stellar average ratings of about 6 million (Kath & Kim) and 7.4 million (Gary Unmarried) viewers aside, both sitcoms have demonstrated the ability to not only retain all of the viewers from their lead-in — My Name Is Earl in the case of NBC and The New Adventures of Old Christine on CBS — in key demographics, but also build on their predecessors’ audience in certain age brackets.

In addition, CBS has also ordered three more episodes of Monday night’s Britcom adaptation Worst Week, which brings the series to a freshman total of 16 episodes. It has averaged 9.9 million viewers for each episode, in (large) part thanks to its ultra popular lead-in Two and a Half Men. Since Rules of Engagement will likely return in the winter to air in the 9:30pm, post-Men time slot, the shorter season makes perfect programming sense.

There’s doubly good news for Chuck fans of late. First NBC released the information that it has found the perfect thespians to play Captain Awesome’s (Ryan McPartlin) presumably awesome parents, and then the network announced earlier today that the dramedy has been picked up for a full season.

In the first case, Entertainment Weekly reports that TV veterans Morgan Fairchild (Friends, Falcon Crest) and Bruce Boxleitner (Babylon 5, Scarecrow and Mrs. King) will show up during Chuck’s sophomore season as Doctors Honey and Woody Woodcombe. Not loving the names at all, but at least the elder physicians will like Ellie (Sarah Lancaster), so they can’t be all that bad, right? Predictably, they’ll arrive prior to Ellie and Awesome’s big wedding to lend a hand, wanted or not.

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NOTE: Pictures indicate series currently covered at Comedy Centric

NOTE: Pictures indicate series currently covered at Comedy Centric